“I WON’T ASK FOR
CASEY’S HELP”
TO TAR, OR NOT TO TAR
That is the question
33
GPWEEK.com //
PARTNERS:
Dani Pedrosa expects no help in his
championship battle from Casey
Stoner, if his Australian team-mate
returns as expected for the next
round at Motegi in two weeks. And
he won’t ask him for any help either.
“You win championships because you
are better than the others, not because
anyone helps you,” he insisted, when
asked the question at Aragon.
Dani’s points gap is 33 points, and
with four races to go there are still 100
on the table. But if he were to win every
remaining race he needs for Lorenzo to
be third or worse at all of them. Only
Stoner could help him achieve this.
“If Casey comes back, I am sure it is
because he wants to win the last races
of his career,” said Pedrosa.
“Casey is a winner, and I wouldn’t ask
him anything like this. I wouldn’t ask
him,” he said.
If there is any precedent, it usually
goes the other way ... and the most
famous example involves none other
than Pedrosa. It was in 2006, when his
then Repsol Honda team-mate Nicky
Hayden was battling for the title with
Rossi.
Nicky arrived at the penultimate round
in Portugal leading on points, but left
nine points behind after a memorable
error by Pedrosa sent him flying at
the end of the back straight. In the
end Nicky won the crown when Rossi
crashed at the last race at Valencia. But
he certainly didn’t have any help from
Dani.
Nicky Hayden had a horrible crash at Aragon. It was
on the long corner at the end of the long back straight.
Tipping the bike in on the second lap, the front slid
away. He saved it, but now he was heading off the
track still on his wheels, at a trajectory and speed not
anticipated by the track designers.
The surface was gravel, meaning he had no real control.
And he hit the barrier, hard enough to flip himself right over
it like a rag doll. He landed heavily on the other side, very
lucky indeed not to hit anything or anyone, and to escape
serious injury.
What if it had not been gravel, but asphalt, as is the case
on a number of other corners on this track and nowadays
many others? In this case, it probably would have saved
him. He would have been able to brake.
But the answer is not that simple, as team-mate Rossi
pointed out: “Sometimes gravel is better. If you fall on
wet asphalt, you can slide a long way, but in gravel you
will stop. For sure we will talk about it in the next Safety
Commission meeting.”
When asphalt first started to replace gravel traps
some six or seven years ago, many riders were critical.
Particularly Casey Stoner, who decried the fact that it gave
riders a second chance – to run wide, slow down, and
rejoin the track. “If you make a mistake, you should pay for
it,” he said at the time.
Hayden paid for it on Sunday. Everyone was thankful
that this time the price was not too high.
MOTOGP >>> ARAGON